I Need a Hero (Literally)

Unexpected

 A pile of books clustered around the foot of the bed, burying the floors. It left only a thin line of walking space to the door, enough to not let anyone trip if they happened to stumble in.

Like that would ever happen.

Yeah. Never.

The palace would be lucky to even have birds chirp in the mornings.

Hong-Yi lay sprawled on the grand bed, fingers plucking away at one sunflower out of the many dozens by the window-sill.

She shouldn't have asked for flowers. A small voice in her head scolded her to be grateful. And in hindsight, she should.

The white dragon encircling her tower had been one of the more reasonable ones; most of her requests were followed through, despite it not uttering a sound back to her. Hong-Yi thought at least it was better than ignoring her.

Glancing at the rest of the bouquet by the window, she sighed.

At first it was to remind her of the sunny days that were few and far between out in the East Sea. But the moment she laid eyes on the array of bright yellow petals, her heart felt the stab of regret plunging into its depths.

It was better if she didn't think back on the days when the warm embrace from the sun welcomed her at dawn. It was better if she didn't get a chance to miss it.

So she put them to other use. She did read somewhere that this method would bring her good luck if she landed on the right phrase.

"...I will find true love. I won't find true love. I will find true love. I won't find true love. I will find true love. I wo- ..."

Her hand hovered over the last petal. Brows pinching together in a tight line, Hong-Yi let out an exasperated sigh.

True love wasn't coming any time soon. Onto the next flower.

A collection of plant stalks soon joined the heap of books on the ground, further adding to her frustrations.

Time was irrelevant at the tower; all she had to know was when to eat, sleep, and wash. All else was inconsequential. She figured she could waste the rest of today for once, as mindless repetition was just as addicting.

The moon shone brighter compared to other nights in recent days. Maybe she could stare at that for the next hour. The notion failed to tug at her heartstrings, it was a pity she was more into the sun.

An unexpected flash of red had Hong-Yi jerking from her thoughts. She yelped and threw a pillow towards the door, missing the mark by a long stretch. A squeak erupted from the side of the bed, blowing out her vigilance in one breath.

Tiny claws grabbed at the covers, and a whiskered face poked out from under the bed.

Mushu was not amused.

"Now that's no way to greet your elder!" the red dragon lectured. His nails clattered in an agitated rhythm against the wooden headboard.

Hong-Yi fel her cheeks burst into flames. There was zero reason for her to be on alert for intruders, the dragon had made sure of that.

She could count on one hand how many times she prepared herself on the bed to be kissed only to hear her rescuers being tossed out the palace. Hong-Yi frowned. 'Rescuers' was a kind word, maybe 'face-hogging-wannabes' was a more ideal adjective for them.

At this rate she should just sell her soul to the dragon lord early and be done with this shit. She wouldn't even need to wait until her birthday; it was a waste of everyone's time.